Volatile Bonds (Prospero's War #4)

The light intensified once the thumb touched the wound. I stepped forward for a closer look. The skin where the thumb had been severed bubbled and hissed. It was almost as if the horn’s light was cooking the thumb back in place.

Once the smoke cleared and the light receded, Yü Nü lifted her hand. One of her maidens came forward with a basin. She dipped the hand in, carefully washing off the gore. When Yü Nü lifted it out of the water, the skin was unblemished.

Yü Nü clenched her hand into a fist and then wiggled the thumb to demonstrated that it was uninjured.

I swallowed hard. Morales had said she was rumored to be immortal, but I hadn’t believed him. Wizards, especially ones who worked in alchemy, were always claiming to have found the elixir. But I’d never actually met one.

Despite the kitchen’s heat, I suddenly felt chilled to the bone.

“You want to try?” Yü Nü said tauntingly.

I put my hands behind my back. “I’ll pass.”

She cackled.

“All right,” Morales said. “Where’s Alexander Hung?”

She scraped the edge of her blade over the cutting board’s bloody surface. “Who?”

“Part owner of this restaurant.”

She licked the fingers of her left hand. “Don’t know investors. Just cook.”

“Bullshit,” I said.

She raised her greasy hands and looked around, wide-eyed. “Do you see him?”

“I saw him come here the other night,” I said.

“Maybe he picked up some egg rolls,” she said without missing a beat.

“All right,” Morales said to me. “It’s time to go.”

I nodded and started to turn away.

“Take this with you,” Yü Nü’s voice rang out. “The least I can do for interrupting your dinner.” She held out a white plastic bag with a large yellow smiley face on the front. “I threw in some fortune cookies, too.”

When we hesitated, she sighed and came from around the back of the counter. She shoved the bag into Morales’s hand but held on, forcing him to look at her. “You listen,” she said in an undertone, “Coming after Yü Nü is a waste of your time. I didn’t kill anyone.”

He pulled back. “Oddly, I don’t feel inclined to take your word for it.” He handed the bag back to her. “And I’ve lost my appetite. Let’s go, Kate.”

He turned to walk out. Instead of following immediately, I snatched the bag out of Yü Nü’s hands. “I haven’t lost my appetite.” And then I turned on my heel and marched past the armed men.

“Detective Prospero?” she called.

I turned and raise a brow.

“He’s going down soon. You want to sink with him?”

I laughed. “For what?” I held up the duck. “All I did was pick up dinner. You’re the one putting on the display here.”

“The Fangshi have resources you can’t begin to imagine. We’ll find something that will stick.”

“Not if we do first.”

She raised her chin and the light caught the jade horn, making it spark milky green. “You don’t want to start a war with Yü Nü, little girl.”

I snorted. “No, lady, you don’t want to start a war with a Prospero.”





Chapter Nineteen





The last thing we wanted to do after leaving Jade Moon was go back to Gardner and let her know we didn’t have Alexander Hung. I was pretty sure telling her we managed to get ourselves on the shitlist of a Chinese sorceress was also not news that would excite her.

Also? Morales hadn’t spoken to me since we left the restaurant.

“Do you think Yü Nü put the hit out on Krystal?” I said, as he pulled the SUV from the curb.

He stared out the windshield as if I hadn’t spoken.

“Hello?”

“What?”

“Earth to Morales, it’s me—your partner.” I leaned forward and waved my arms. “Don’t shut down on me now, okay?”

He finally looked over. “We just kicked a hornet’s nest in there.”

“All the more reason to find Hung and bring him in for questioning.”

He shook himself, getting back in the game. “Let’s head over to the apartment building. See if we can rustle him up.”

Ten minutes later, we pulled up in front of the Phoenix, a luxury apartment building on the Steel River. The project had been built by Volos’s real estate development company as part of their larger project to revitalize the Cauldron. Volos lived on the fourth floor, which, according to Shadi’s notes that Gardner texted me, was the same floor where Hung was staying.

“Hold on,” I said. “Hung is staying in the apartment where Mayor Owens used to live.”

Mayor Skip Owens had run Babylon until a psycho who thought he was the second coming of Dionysus killed him and tried to frame Aphrodite for the crime. He had lived in one of the penthouses in the building and Volos had the other, but now I guessed Volos owned both. Typical.

“Looks like,” Morales said. “I hope they at least put a new bed in there.”

Owens had been poisoned and his body had been found wearing a gimp mask and arranged like the Hanged Man from the tarot.

“Odd that Volos is keeping Hung so close,” I said.

“Is it really?” he said, getting out of the car. I jumped out to, and when we met up again on the sidewalk, he said, “It’s looking more and more like the Chinese are making lots of interesting alliances in town.”

We headed toward the art deco doors. “What I’m curious about is whether Volos and Abe know about each other. Seems like the Chinese would want to keep each of their side pieces unaware of each other.”

Inside the lobby, there was a security guard dressed in a slick navy suit. He had jet black hair and a scowl as imposing as the Great Wall. Oh, yeah, and he was of Asian descent.

Surprise, surprise.

“Who are you here to see?” he demanded. Guess they didn’t teach public relations at scary security guard school.

I was pretty sure that the second we told him we were looking for Alexander Hung, he’d push a button on a console to alert our quarry to scurry out the building’s back exit. “Mayor Volos,” I said.

Morales didn’t turn to look at me, but he did nudge my ankle with his toe—a subtle What the fuck? signal.

“He expecting you?”

I shook my head. “No, but he’ll see us. Tell him Kate’s in the lobby. We’re old friends.”

The guard didn’t look convinced but he did pick up the black phone from the console. He turned away as he spoke quietly. After a couple of moments, he looked back at us over his shoulder and said into the mouthpiece, “I understand, sir.”

My stomach dropped. Had my visit to the mayor’s office ruined any pull I had over Volos?

The guard hung up the phone. “He says he wasn’t expecting you.”

I licked my lips nervously and opened my mouth to try to BS my way out of this, but the guard wasn’t done.

His face cleared. “But he said you can head on up.”

Shock held me motionless for a second, but then Morales tugged on my sleeve. Next thing I knew, we were alone in the elevator, on our way up to the fourth floor.

I could practically feel Morales holding back on a lecture he didn’t dare deliver. Volos had every inch of the public spaces in that building under surveillance. There was no doubt he was watching and listening to us.

“Nice night,” I said.

“Uh-huh.” Morales crossed his arms.

Fine, so he wasn’t happy. I could handle that. If we could have talked, I would have told him that I made the play because I knew the guard wouldn’t let us up there if we mentioned Hung’s name. This way, we could get to the fourth floor, no problem. We just had to figure out how to shake Volos and get over to Hung’s place.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. I’d sort of been hoping we could just sidle out and head to Hung’s place. However, Volos waited for us in the open doorway of his apartment.

“Kate, Morales—what a nice surprise!”

“Shit,” I said.

“Lucy, you’ve got some ’splainin’ to do when this is all done,” Morales said under his breath.

“Just follow my lead,” I said under my breath.

Before he could point out we were in that situation because I’d taken the lead, I raised a hand to wave. “Hey, Mr. Mayor.”

Volos’s posture changed from a gotcha stance to that of an animal who smells an ambush. “What brings you here?”

We exited the elevator. “Actually, the guard misunderstood,” I said. “We were on our way to meet your new neighbor.”

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